Engineering topics
Publications and source records attributed to Chen, Y..
This paper describes machine vision algorithms that enable precision guidance and hazard avoidance during small body exploration through onboard visual feature tracking and landmark recognition.
Airborne, in-situ measurements from PEM-Tropics-A (September/October 1996) are analyzed to show the presence of distinct pollution plumes in the middle-tropical troposphere of the remote South Pacific (10-30degS). These elevated plumes cause a relative maximum at about 5-7km attitude in the vertical distribution of primary and secondary species characteristic of fuel combustion and biomass burning (CO, C2H2, C2H6, CH3Cl, PAN, O3). Similar plumes were also observed at mid-latitudes in the middle troposphere during three flights east of New Zealand (40-45degS). In all, pollution plumes with CO larger than 100 ppb were observed 24 times on 7 separate flight days south of the equator. The observed plumes were generally embedded in very dry air. Ten-day back trajectory analysis supports the view that these originated from the biomass burning regions of South Africa (and South America) and were transported to the South Pacific along long-distance subsiding trajectories. The chemical composition of the southern Pacific troposphere analyzed from the PEM-Tropics-A data is compared with data from the tropical regions of the northern Pacific (PEM-West-A) and southern Atlantic (TRACE-A) during the same Sept/Oct time period. Sizable perturbations in the abundance of ozone and its key precursors, resulting from the transport of pollution originating from biomass burning sources, are observed in much of the Southern Hemispheric troposphere.
A high-performance liquid chromatographic method was developed as an alternative to automated enzymatic analysis of uric acid in human urine preserved with thymol and/or thimerosal. Uric acid (tR = 10 min) and creatinine (tR = 5 min) were separated and quantified during isocratic elution (0.025 M acetate buffer, pH 4.5) from a mu Bondapak C18 column. The uric-acid peak was identified chemically by incubating urine samples with uricase. The thymol/thimerosal peak appeared at 31 min during the washing step and did not interfere with the analysis. We validated the high-performance liquid chromatographic method for linearity, precision and accuracy, and the results were found to be excellent.
In-situ measurements of a large number of trace chemicals from upper troposphere/lower stratosphere (UT/LS) were performed with the NASA DC-8 aircraft during February/March 1994 over the Pacific Ocean (10 S to 60 N). Mixing ratios in the UT were relatively low in the warm tropical and subtropical air south of the polar jetstream (approx. =28 N) but increased sharply with latitude in the cold polar air north of the jetstream. At about 45 N, high concentrations of PAN (300 ppt) coexisted with extremely low (approx. = 20 ppt) concentrations of NOx. Elevated NOx levels in the UT did not always correspond to continental outflow conditions. Deepest penetrations into the stratosphere (550 ppb O3, 279 ppb NOx, and 350 K potential temperature) corresponded to a region that has been defined as the 'lowermost stratosphere' (LS) by Holton et al. Analysis of data shows that the mixing ratios of long-lived tracer species (e.g., CH4, HNO3, NOy, CFCs, HCFCs) are linearly correlated with those of O3 and N2O. A delta-NOY/delta-O3 of 0.0054 ppb/ppb and delta-NOy/delta-N2O of -0.081 ppb/ppb is in good agreement with other reported measurements from the DC-8. These slopes are however, somewhat steeper than those reported from the ER-2 studies. We find that the reactive nitrogen budget in the UT/LS is largely balanced with shortfalls that are no greater than 15%. A number of oxygenated species (e.g., acetone, H2O2) are present and may provide an important in-situ source of HOx in the UT/LS region.
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Aerobrake design for the Mars Environmental Survey (MESUR) vehicles is considered which is intended for both a nominal entry velocity of 7 km/sec and a high-speed case of 9 km/sec. Topics discussed include the entry environment, the thermal protection requirements for several types of heat shield materials, the structural design of the aeroshell, and the total aerobrake masses and mass fractions. For the nominal 7 km/sec entry, a silicone elastometric charring ablator, SLA-561, was found to be the lightest heat shield material. For the 7 km/sec entry, the mass fraction of the aerobrake was 13.2 percent. For the 9 km/sec entry, the heat shield consisted of the medium-density ablator AVCOAT-5026; SLA-561 was used on part of the conical skirt. The aerobrake mass fraction in this case was 18 percent. It is recommended that separate aerobrakes be designed for probes entering at 7 and 9 km/sec.
Physiological changes that occur during exposure to weightlessness may induce alterations in blood flow to the liver. Estimation of hepatic blood flow (HBF) using ground-based weightlessness simulation models may provide insight into functional changes of the liver in crewmembers during flight. In the present study, HBF, indirectly estimated by indocyanine gree (ICG) clearance, is compared in 10 subjects during the normal ambulatory condition and antiorthostatic (-6 deg) bed rest. Plasma clearance of ICG was determined following intravenous administration of a 0.5-mg/kg dose of ICG to each subject on two separate occasions: once after being seated for 1 h, and once after 24 h of head-down bed rest. After 24 h of head-down bed rest, hepatic blood flow did not change significantly from the respective control value.
Spectral data for smectite clays, particularly for montmorillonite, which contain various adsorbed ions and are measured in the UV, VIS, and NIR ranges are analyzed and compared with Martian soil and dust spectra. It is shown that the structural octahedral iron in smectite clays affects their light absorbance in the UV at 240-260 nm, which results from an O(2-) to Fe(3+) charge transfer, similar to one observed in the Martian spectrum. Adsorbed iron affects, via crystal field absorptions, the reflectance of montmorillonite in the VIS and NIR ranges, resulting in stronger absorption and higher opacity in the range 0.40-0.65 micron. Both in spectral contrast and presence of (or lack of) spectral features, the Fe-montmorillonite spectra in the VIS and NIR are in reasonable agreement with the Martian spectrum. It is found that the spectral characteristics of iron-saturated smectite clays cannot be used to preclude the presence of clays in Martian soils and dust.
Structural dynamics, and results of finite element modelling of thin plates
Plate study associated with reflector dynamics of Rosman I antenna
Dynamic properties of Radio Astronomy Explorer and equations for central-body motion
Outgassing of spacecraft for diagnostic tool and spectrometer measurements in outgassing analysis